Tag Archives: Urban Fantasy

Ghost Story is the thirteenth installment of Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden novels. I read somewhere that Butcher wanted to call the novel Dead but this was flatly rejected by the publishers. The title itself leaves absolutely no room for question. Implicit in the title is the spoiler: harry Dresden is, as of the twelfth novel, Changes, dead. That’s right: some jerk–some lousy irredeemably stupid schmuck–killed the hero of the series. It’s Harry’s job to figure out whodunnit.

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David Eddings wrote the five books that comprise The Belgariad while I was still in high school. I remember seeing them on the library shelves, and passing them by for other things. Frequently during those years, I would re-read novels that captivated me. So in 1983-1985, I entirely missed this series. I will blame the font because, in those days, I truly did judge a book by its cover (especially if that book was a fantasy novel, and the cover wasn’t designed by Darrell K. Sweet). Continue reading The Belgariad Pt. 1 [Book Review]→

When I think of scary circus stuff, clowns leap to the front of the list. Of course, there are fanged clowns in the Circus of the Damned. How could there not be? It’s the perfect milieu for Anita Blake, the heroine of Laurell K. Hamilton’s “Vampire Hunter” series. Anita is an animator: she raises the undead for a living, which goes to show you, by page one, she’s not a squeamish woman. More about this circus. There are demon acrobats, and fanged clowns, and sinuous snake charmers and giant snakes. And it’s all run by the vampires of St. Louis. Continue reading Circus of the Damned (Book review)→

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The Laughing Corpse is an urban fantasy/paranormal novel by Laurell K. Hamilton. Its protagonist, Anita Blake, is a young “animator”, or somebody who is able to raise the dead. As such, she has certain immunities to other paranormal creatures, such as vampires and lycanthropes (were-beasts). Continue reading The Laughing Corpse (Book Review)→

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Guilty Pleasures is a vampire novel in the urban fantasy genre, the first in the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton. The series is based in and around the city of St. Louis, where the heroine works as an animator, someone who raises the dead. To the vampire community, she is simply known as “The Executioner” because she has killed dozens of rogue vampires who need to be brought to justice.The novel is in the “hardboiled detective” genre, and Anita Blake bears much resemblance to Sue Grafton’s character Kinsey Millhone: a no-nonsense woman doing a no-nonsense job. She is tough, no nonsense, hates seeing her friends hurt by her own actions–the usual stuff for a genre like this. Continue reading Guilty Pleasures (Book Review)→